Morgan Saylor Talks Sex, Drugs and her Scandalizing New 'White Girl' Role

Welcome to Girl Rising, our new recurring interview series featuring our favorite newcomers on the verge of stardom.This week, actress Morgan Saylor on starring in White Girl and why sex on film is still so polarizing.

After watching her snort massive amounts of cocaine, sell massive amounts of cocaine and lose all the money she made selling said cocaine in White Girl, I'm shocked when Morgan Saylor answers the phone for our interview with a modest whisper of a voice. The 21-year-old actress, who got her start playing Brody's daughter Dana on Homeland, confirms she's vastly different from Leah, the bleach-blonde, hard-partying Midwestern transplant she plays in White Girl, director Elizabeth Wood's first feature and Saylor's first starring role.

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"I did not fall down the rabbit hole at all compared to Leah," the actress declares. But in her character's attraction to New York City's smorgasbord of sex and drugs, Saylor found her the most challenging—and rewarding—character to date. "I felt like if I could do this—if I could create this whole character—it would tell me a lot about my career," she says. Though Leah's downward spiral might be tough for some viewers to stomach, White Girl proves Saylor has the skill to tackle uncomfortable and even painful subjects masterfully. Below, she opens up about facing her fear of the role, backlash to the film, and being a regular college student:

Harper's BAZAAR: Let's start from the beginning. How did you get involved with White Girl?

Morgan Saylor: It came across my plate two and a half, almost three years ago as a typical audition. But when I first read the script it didn't feel typical. It felt so out there and unique compared to most scripts I read. I was really excited but also scared and knew I would want to see the film whether I was in it or not.

HB: There's some really heavy stuff in there. Were you intimidated by the story?

MS: Yeah, for sure. Intimidated is a good word. But I also knew it was an exciting challenge and if I could do it, it would feel like a big step in my own acting brain, to see if I could play that character.

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HB: What was your relationship like with Elizabeth, the director? What did you discuss with her in order to find that character?

MS: We spent a lot, a lot, a lot of time together before we shot it. I think I came on in April or May and we didn't shoot until October. We both live in New York and the film was shot in New York so we had the ability to spend time with one another, which isn't always the case. She was pretty clear from the beginning that even though it was based on real-life things, this was a story that she had crafted into a script and I wasn't trying to play her, which was really helpful to hear and to know. But also, she was so open about everything, be it drug use, or sexuality, or the bigger themes of the movie. She was down to talk about anything, always. She likes to open up about everything in a way that makes people comfortable. She'll tell you her actual heart and her actual feelings on things in a way that I don't feel like everyone does.

HB: It removes the taboo from the situation.

MS: Completely. We talked about everything to the point where nothing felt taboo, which is really helpful when you're making a film [laughs].

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HB: Were you able to pull from any of your own life experiences to play Leah?

MS: I'm so different from Leah in a lot of ways. I'm a lot more reserved, I would say, but at the same time I grew up in Atlanta—the character is from Oklahoma—and I moved to New York when I was 18. One thing I think is important in the film is we see her go through all these hedonistic, crazy adventures and by the end hopefully it feels like she's starting to figure things out and starting to understand what it means to be a young woman, and I related to that. When I moved to New York, I feel like a lot of things widened within my perspective and as I spend some time here—as everyone does when they're that age or a young person—[you] figure out your own ideals or figure out the way you fit into society a little bit more than you did before.

HB: Did you find it frustrating to play someone so different from you?

MS: Maybe when I first read it and as I started to come onto the project, but I really had to let that go. I really, really did. Even though she might not be the kind of person I would hang out with in life, I had to look at her optimism and convince myself it was charming and tuck into that as opposed to alienating her.

HB: Is there one scene that stands out to you as the weirdest to film or the most difficult?

MS: Perhaps the ones where I'm alone doing coke, in my room or in the house, because I didn't have a partner for those. It was just me playing around on my own brain to get somewhere weird and fucked up.

HB: How do you film those cocaine scenes? What were you using?

MS: We used B-12, the vitamin. You just snort it. They bought me a Neti Pot to keep my sinuses clear [laughs].

"Even though [my character] might not be the kind of person I would hang out with in life, I had to look at her optimism and convince myself it was charming."

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HB: Do you think the ending of White Girl left things on a hopeful note?

MS: In some way, yes, but I do think by the end, she's lost a lot of hope. She's lost a lot of the gusto and excitement and enthusiasm for life that we see throughout the film. But I think that's okay and that is part of growing up and that is good, to learn that the world isn't always your oyster or isn't everybody's oyster. So I don't know if hopeful is how I would describe it at the end, but more conscious, or something.

HB: How was making this film different than any other project you worked on before?

MS: Well, I've made a few independent films now and a few movies with Disney and I've done TV. I really love independent films. There's something so determined about the people who work on them. I mean, it was a 22-day shoot, which was tight and tough. It also was in New York. The last thing I shot [was] in Nashville, the thing before that was in Salt Lake City, the thing before that was in LA. So it was funny to actually come home at the end of a long day instead of just a hotel. It was interesting. But also the work that we put into the character and the script before we shot was by far more than anything else I've ever done. It was the lowest budget of a project I've ever worked on and the longest rehearsal period, and that really was spectacular and I think really important in expediting what we needed to do on the day.

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HB: What did you take away from making this film? What did you learn about yourself?

MS: It was my first proper "big lead" role and like I said, when I signed on I was scared, but I felt like if I could do this—if I could create this whole character—it would tell me a lot about my career. I had done a play right before it, and that kind of shook my acting brain in a weird way as well, my first play in New York. I learned to understand the distance a character can be from yourself and how important rehearsal can be to creating a person that feels like a person that isn't you. And now it's hard to do things like auditions, because you don't want to put weeks of work into just an audition. But I am realizing, even as I've met with directors since then, how exciting a real collaboration can be, like I had with Elizabeth, but also how much work you can put into it and how it actually does something.

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"We used B-12, the vitamin. You just snort it. They bought me a Neti Pot to keep my sinuses clear."

HB: You got a whole new look for the film. Where did those bleached curls come from?

MS: I loved it. I thought it was so fun. Elizabeth and I had a lot of modern-day, young, druggy girls as inspiration and we would compile a bunch of images from movies as well. The day I dyed my hair, it was so fascinating to see how I was perceived differently on the train or walking around the city, how more eyes would go to me and people would call on me more. I, Morgan, was very shy from that, but Leah would love that attention and would thrive on that attention. It was really interesting. Because we had so much time leading up to it, I was able to change my appearance and see how people responded to it. One thing about New York is you can understand how you're perceived really easily if you just get on the train, by the way people look at you. But there's still an anonymity in it. Elizabeth was frequently trying to encourage me to understand my sexiness and what made me feel hot and powerful.

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HB: What do you say to critics of the film who find the movie salacious and shocking?

MS: I don't say anything. They're allowed to have their opinions, but I do think it's important to look past those things. I find it really weird that sexuality is still so taboo in films and violence isn't. It really bewilders me. Gun violence is almost promoted onscreen in these huge blockbusters and then sex is still so shocking. But I also can understand that people find it uncomfortable, which I think is cool. We've been asked, "Why do you show this if you know it's going to make the audience uncomfortable?" and I think it's about how it's kind of real. It's an honest portrayal of sex, in some way.

From left: at Miu Miu's Fall 2016 show; at a Samsung event; promoting White Girl at an AOL event

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HB: And in a total 180, you're playing a nun in your next film.

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MS: [Laughs] Yeah, the film is called Novitiate. It's another female director, first time feature, and I play a young nun in the early '60s around when the Pope passed Vatican II. It takes place in a little town in America, in a little convent. The pope passed this huge thing that shifted Catholicism in a huge way. It kind of eradicated all of the harshest laws of sacrifice and shook up the convents and the practices. It's really interesting.

HB: What else are you working on?

MS: I go back to school in a few weeks. I'm starting my second year. I'm studying math at the University of Chicago, so I'll head that way soon.

HB: Do you consider yourself to be more left or right-brained?

MS: I get asked that a lot because people say, "You're studying math but you're so creative," but to me, even the creative things feel mathematic, almost. So I guess left, perhaps?

"One thing about New York is you can understand really easily how you're perceived if you just get on the train."

HB: Do you have a dream role you'd love to play, or someone you really want to collaborate with?

MS: Wow, I'm not sure. I really do like working very closely with a director and developing characters. My dreams? Like, PTA [Paul Thomas Anderson] and Jim Jarmusch.

HB: How would you describe your own personal style?

MS: Classic but also cool. I do a lot of vintage, of course, but I really feel so particular about clothing. I think it stems from acting, like if I'm not wearing the proper shoes for a character I feel totally off. And as I've started school I have a student-feeling wardrobe and then because I travel a lot, things feel very different for different places and days. I'm very good at living out of a suitcase. I love dressing up every morning. It feels like a costume, in some ways.

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